Chapter 15
Ekaterina
My entire existence rests on unstable ground, constantly trembling beneath my feet, and the future is wrapped in a dense fog I don’t know how to escape from.
But right now, there is quiet.
Meaning in his arms, pressed to his warm skin, where I have been since the last, most powerful orgasm of my life, because every single one tonight was like that. He kissed me until our hearts calmed, then took me prisoner in his arms.
I can still hear his heart beating hard.
I can still feel his lips kissing the crown of my head every three seconds. Then my forehead, my temple, anything he can reach while I stay curled against him.
How can a man be this gentle when, for one moment, I thought he wanted to kill me again?
How can a man – whose greatest pleasure in life is watching blood spill – kiss me like this? A man who kills people and makes them suffer simply because he enjoys their screams of pain.
I know his reputation too well not to understand who I am dealing with. I grew up among men like him, but I know he is far worse than most of them.
And yet now, beside me, he is completely different.
As for the things he said while he was deep inside me, I can only believe they were the words of a man drunk on the pleasure we were both feeling in those moments.
He couldn’t have been serious about my wedding.
We both know the consequences of canceling it. Or at least I know mine, because I don’t think he would be too affected.
“I want you in my bed,” he says, calm and serious.
“Technically, this is your bed too.”
“You know what I mean.”
“If you want to sleep with me, you’ll do it here.”
“I don’t sleep in another bed unless I am away in another city on business and sleeping at a hotel.”
I pull away from him just enough to look into those mismatched eyes, the ones I know will haunt my nights and thoughts for the rest of my life.
“Meaning you don’t sleep with anyone else unless you’re at a hotel?”
A crease appears between his brows.
“I have never slept with anyone else in the same bed. Except you.”
“I can’t believe that...” I whisper, making him press his lips in a thin line, displeased by my disbelief.
“I never lie, dusha moya. I’ve told you that before. Lies are used by weak and frightened people, and I am neither. I became who I am so I would have enough power to always tell the truth to anyone. Especially you. I’m responsible for everything I do and everything I say,
so don’t ever imagine my words are spoken out of impulse.”
I freeze at his entire declaration and blink a few times, trying to find my words.
“And then... what you said earlier, about the wedding...”
“You will break the engagement.”
His voice is loaded with the power he possesses.
I pull away from him, agitated and confused, sitting up while he calmly rises onto one elbow, watching me impassively.
“That decision is not yours, Artem.”
He lifts one beautifully shaped brow, as black as the tousled hair that makes him look much younger.
“The hell it isn’t.”
“No. You can’t impose this on me, and you can’t interfere in this.”
“Ekaterina. I can, and I will. In both cases.”
“You’re insane.”
“Debatable. There is no doctor alive who could support your theory.”
I stare at him, wide-eyed, completely distracted from the main subject of our conversation.
“Alive? What about dead?”
“A few,” he answers casually.
God, what have I gotten myself into?
I rub my forehead with two fingers and let out a tired sigh. My entire body aches, and my mind is too dizzy from everything that happened tonight for me to argue with him.
The clock shows it is almost four in the morning, and I am supposed to wake up in three hours to make it for early meeting with a potential gallery client.
“I can’t have this discussion right now,” I tell him, increasingly exhausted. “I have business first thing in the morning, and I don’t want to fight with you in the middle of the night. I don’t even have the energy to shower anymore...”
“We are not fighting at all, but you’re right. We need to sleep.”
He kisses me quickly on the lips and jumps out of bed.
“So you don’t want to come to my room?” he asks, pointing toward the door. “The bed there is bigger and more comfortable. And it isn’t wet.”
I blush, looking around at the bedsheets ruined by my body, which I had no idea could react that way to such an intense orgasm. Apparently, Artem has supernatural powers even when it comes to sex.
But his offer remains standing, along with his half-naked body, waiting for my answer like a god.
After everything that happened, I would truly like to sleep beside him, but I am too stubborn to give in, especially after seeing how determined he is to get his way about a wedding he is not even invited to.
“I’m staying here. I’ll change the sheets.”
He clenches his teeth, and I see the muscle in his cheek tighten.
“Fine. I’ll go change and come right back to help you.”
“Excuse me?”
But he is already out the door, his trousers hanging low on his hips, and he doesn’t bother answering me.
I stare at the door for a few moments before deciding I must have heard him wrong and get up to pull out a fresh set of sheets.
The bed is a wreck, the sheets sticky, but everything smells like him.
I smile.
Biting my lower lip, I quickly dress in another nightgown, and after carrying the pile of dirty sheets to the bathroom, I take a new set from the closet, just as soft as the previous one.
The door opens, and Artem returns to the room wearing only a pair of long, very loose pants through which I can still see the shape of his half-hard cock far too well.
I close my eyes for a moment and breathe deeply, trying to remember that I will wake up in only few hours and that I don’t have time to indulge in the new fantasy coloring my imagination.
Together, we make the bed in silence, and less than two minutes later, when everything is ready, I stretch out on the soft mattress.
I should be surprised when I see him hesitate not even a second before lying down beside me, but I don’t know if it is exhaustion or the haze of the moments from earlier that now makes his gesture feel perfectly normal.
Pleasant.
“I thought you said you don’t sleep in another bed, and this is not a hotel, Pakhan,” I tease him when he gently pulls me into his arms.
“But you are here, dusha moya,” he whispers, pressing his lips to my hair.
I’m melting.
Smiling, and without making any other useless or cruel comments, I press myself fully against him, where I fall asleep almost instantly.
In the arms of the monster I am falling in love with.
“You seem awfully cheerful today,” Oksana remarks when I arrive at the gallery.
“I slept well,” I tell her, holding back a giggle.
“Judging by the dark circles your makeup is barely covering, I wouldn’t have guessed.”
I could lie, blame the food, or invent some other stupid reason. But I don’t want to lie to her. I want to be brave and strong like Artem and tell the truth, even when, in certain cases, it would be better to avoid it.
Like now.
“If I hadn’t had that meeting in the morning, I would have slept longer. The bed was too good.”
Being beside him was divine.
When the alarm rang in the morning, he was still next to me, his nose buried in my hair. He was awake, watching me as if I were the most precious person on the planet.
He kissed me, and his lips moved down my throat, then to my chest. After he pulled me on top of him, I placed my knees on either side of his body, and he entered me.
He was already hard. And naked. And I hadn’t put my underwear back on last night.
He moved slowly, and I felt as if we were making love, because his eyes never left mine, whispering to me again and again in Russian that I was his and only his.
Sometimes he said ours, but it was not a good moment to ask why he used the plural.
I realize strange things are happening in his mind, things I hope we will clarify as soon as possible.
“My intuition tells me you’re hiding something,” Oksana insists with a sly grin. “So, what is it?”
I wish I could confess to her, but things are still too unclear, and I don’t fully understand them myself well enough to explain. That is exactly why my shoulders slowly drop, and my cheerful expression turns more subdued.
“I don’t know yet. But I promise I’ll tell you everything once I understand what is happening around me too.”
“So, something is happening.”
I nod slightly, glancing briefly toward Dima, who, as usual, keeps a discreet distance.
“Something is happening.”
Her face slowly grows concerned, and she takes my hand in hers, both of us sitting on the white sofa.
“Don’t tell me you have something going on with that shestyorka,” she whispers.
Dimitri is far too respectful and proper for me not to defend him.
“He’s not a shestyorka,” I scold her lightly. “He’s more like a pravaya ruka, a little below the Pakhan’s brothers.”
She lifts an eyebrow.
“Still not enough. So, it’s him?”
“No,” I say quickly, almost laughing. “Absolutely not!”
“Good. I mean, he’s good-looking, but I don’t think it’s worth risking everything for a bodyguard. He may be physically strong, but he doesn’t have the kind of power you need to be protected right now.”
“Something tells me no one could protect me,” I say softly, almost a whisper she can barely hear, though she catches the sadness in my voice.
“Does this have to do with the wedding?”
“It has to do with everything.”
“You’re starting to scare me...”
I try to soothe her with a slightly forced smile, but I also place my other palm over our already joined hands.
“I’ll find a solution.”
She exhales heavily, her shoulders sinking.
“When is Oliver coming back?”
I close my eyes and squeeze my lids shut, then answer when I meet her blue gaze again.
“Next week.”
“Right after your recital?”
“Two days after.”
“It seems very strange to me that he couldn’t come at all during this whole period, especially with the wedding so close.”
I ignore the discomfort I feel the moment I remember the wedding, but at the same time, I also remember Artem’s words about that very subject.